The Northern Colorado Bears (7-15,4-7) have struggled to establish themselves in the Big Sky Conference so far this season, but an upset over the Montana Grizzlies (17-6, 10-1) at home on Thursday night would certainly help. The Bears are just 3-7 at Butler-Hancock Hall, but they will be looking for revenge after losing 76-58 in Montana earlier this year. The 18-point loss is still the largest margin in any of their conference defeats this season, so expect the Bears to come out focused on reversing their fortunes against the Grizzlies.
Northern Colorado's Paul Garnica, Tate Unruh, Mike Proctor, Tevin Svihovec and Emmanuel Addo are the five leading scorers, and one of them finally broke the 10-point barrier for a season average. Sophomore guard Tate Unruh pushed his average to 10.2 points per game after scoring 17 on 5-11 shooting on Saturday against Weber State.
The Bears rank 36th nationally in field goal percentage (47.3 percent), but are facing off against a Montana team that has ripped off six straight wins, a streak that dates back to the first game against Northern Colorado. In that contest the Grizzlies allowed 47.5 percent shooting to the Bears, but forced a whopping 28 turnovers and rode a 27-point outburst by Will Cherry. If Northern Colorado expects to be competitive this time around, they will need to take better care of the basketball.
Here is some information to help you find the game on Thursday:
Game date, time: 7:05 PM MT, Thursday, February 9, 2012
Location: Butler-Hancock Hall, Greeley, CO
Radio: AM 1310
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